“A writer lives, at least, in a state of astonishment. Beneath any feeling he has of the good or evil of the world lies a deeper one of wonder at it all. To transmit that feeling, he writes.”
― William Sansom

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Never on a Sunday

Every once in while, a set of circumstances combine to create freaky coincidences. A few months ago, my family and I experienced what we called "The Never on a Sunday" month of weird events.

It started on the first Sunday of this particular month after church. We'd gone to one of our favorite restaurants for lunch and were on our way home to the Sunday comics and lazy afternoon naps. As we followed a little compact car up a hill, I suddenly noticed that the car ahead was slowing down, and not only that, the driver seemed to be trying to navigate around another car that was pulling in front of it at a crazy angle. Soon the compact car was boxed in by the second car and had to come to a halt.

My radar went off and I told my husband to not get too close...something was wrong. We watched from a safe distance as a man jumped out of the second car and ran to the driver's side door of the little car. There ensued an argument, and a brief struggle, before the lady driving the smaller auto sped up and went around the blocking car. The man immediately ran back to his car and pursued the girl. Their cars disappeared over the crest of the hilly road. Uh oh.

My heart was pounding as we slowly came to the top of the hill and saw both cars screeching around a corner to the left. I said to hubby, "I think I'd better call 911--that doesn't look good." While I was engaged with the dispatcher on the phone, my husband turned and followed the path the two cars had taken.

As we approached a stop sign, there was the little car...sitting at a standstill...empty. I was so frightened at what I might see as my husband pulled even with the car, that I thought I might faint. The windows were down and, inside, the young woman's purse and sweater were lying in the passenger seat. Where was the driver? Not good.

We waited for the police to arrive, but before they came, the second driver returned--with the woman! He let her out of his car, but she was obviously upset. They both drove off separately. We waited for the police and told the officer what we'd seen. I'd gotten her license plate number and he wrote it down, but we didn't know until the next day what had happened. We read in the paper that the officer had gone to the woman's apartment where she admitted her ex-boyfriend had abducted her and beat her up. She pressed charges. I was just happy it wasn't a far worse turn of events.

The second Sunday, we decided to take a nice, relaxing country drive. We meandered down wooded lanes and sunny roads, enjoying the wonderful scenery and warm day. We came upon a car ahead of us, that, as the driver passed under a shady stretch of trees, suddenly slammed on his brakes and stopped his car--right in front of us. Not again!

My husband immediately slowed and kept his distance. What was the guy ahead of us up to? We watched as the driver opened his door, peeled a patch of roadkill off the center line and threw it into the back floor of his car! Then he accelerated and drove out of sight. We were dumbfounded!

We could only imagine what he wanted that mess for. ICK. EWWWW. And then we started laughing. What were the odds that we would come across two Sundays with such weird events?

The third Sunday, we decided to do some grocery shopping. We finished, and as we waited at a large intersection just off the parking lot of the mega-store, we noticed that several Ohio Highway patrol cars were approaching the scene. Suddenly, they all whipped their cars around a sedan that was waiting at the light to our left. The officers jumped out of their cars, GUNS drawn, and ran toward the boxed in car! At least two officers were running from behind the vehicle, their guns pointed in our general direction as they maneuvered to get in front of the "suspect's" car.

I told my husband--"Don't wait for the light! Turn right! Turn right! We don't want to be in the middle of a shoot out!" We never did find out what that little episode was all about, but whatever it was, it scared us to death. How strange that all these odd events were plagueing us!

The fourth Sunday, we went to church, as usual. But this time, when we discussed what we'd do that day, we looked at each other and said, "Let's just go home!"